The first instalment of ‘Latest Pick-Up’ comes with an explosion of personal nostalgia alongside a huge bang with an (almost) complete collection of the Panini stickers from the 2010 World Cup.

This tournament occurred during my high school years meaning most of my time was spent away from studying and focused on the likes of Wesley Sneijder, Steven Gerrard, Sergio Busquets, Rafael Marquez and of course Siphiwe Tshabalala take to the pitches of South Africa. A tournament full of emotions with England being mediocre as always, Spain winning the biggest tournament in the world through an extra time goal from Andres Iniesta and the annoyance of just how frequent people decided to blow into those fucking Vuvuzelas. Away from the pitch, the purists were collecting Panini stickers but for me, I’ve arrived late to the party. As always, I started the collection for the tournament but failed to keep it up throughout hence why I have decided to return to it and finally complete it.

Alongside the world coming together to watch what happened on the pitch, we collected the stickers and listened to K’Naan’s ‘Wavin’ Flag’ (in association with Coca-Cola of course) whilst kicking a ball around at our local pitch and then went home and played the video game (which you can read about here). It’s how we live through the World Cup.

After weeks searching through the depths of the wonderful E-Bay, I finally came across a seller offering 500 stickers, four unopened packets and an album for a reasonable price so of course, I jumped at the chance.

Maybe one day I’ll eventually stick them all into the album but until then, the pile will sit on my desk as I bask in its glory.